Moonwhispers
by Higuchimon
Summary: Hikari wants to hide away from everyone. She's a menace. She's a beast. Sora thinks that's a lot of nonsense. Unfortunately, she's wrong. [hiatus: see profile for details]


**Story Title:** Moonwhispers  
 **Characters:** Sora, Hikari|| **Pairing:** Sora x Hikari/Hikari x Sora (some Taichi x Yamato/Yamato x Taichi)  
 **Word Count:** chapter: 1,553||story: 1,553|| **chapters:** 1/25  
 **Genre:** Drama, Romance|| **Rated:** PG  
 **Challenge:** Diversity Writing, J7, 25 chapters; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #35, 38,274 words; 28 Days of Love, #8, write about any pairing; Pairing Diversity Boot Camp, #25, tears; Advent 2016-2017, day #8, write a fic where everything turns out all right in the end  
 **Notes:** This is an AU. All the juicy details will be revealed in due time.  
 **Summary:** Hikari wants to hide away from everyone. She's a menace. She's a beast. Sora thinks that's a lot of nonsense. Unfortunately, she's wrong.

* * *

Sora rested her hands on her hips, looking from left to right, right to left, and including up and down, just to be certain. No matter which way she looked, however, she couldn't see what she wanted to.

"Hikari, please, come out. There's nothing at all to be afraid of. I've told you that."

There wasn't a sign that the other woman had heard her, though. Not even the faintest of rustles in the bushes. Wherever Hikari was, she wasn't there, and the closer it got to evening, the more worried Sora found herself becoming.

Whatever fears rattled Hikari, they weren't utterly groundless. There were monsters in this part of the world: werewolves in particular. Sora had heard about them before moving here and while she wasn't afraid of them, she considered it best to stay out of their way.

Which was why she wanted to make certain that Hikari remained indoors with everyone else now that the full moon hovered just below the horizon. Being outside wasn't _safe_ in the slightest.

Sora gritted her teeth together and started to move on. She would've thought Hikari would've wanted to stay inside with her. For the last couple of weeks, she'd thought more and more that they would be able to spend this time, the full moon, when everyone huddled in doors and away from the howls of wolves, together.

She certainly hadn't imagined that Hikari would just leave her a quiet note saying that she was going to be gone until after the moon passed and not to worry about her.

That just made Sora worry about her even _more_. There weren't any places to take cover between here and the nearest town that could be reached before sunset. Normally that wasn't too bad, if one chose to travel during better weather or when the moon wasn't the circle of pale beauty that crept higher and higher with each moment.

This wasn't the right time. The moon brought the wolves.

And yet Hikari chose to leave anyway.

 _Maybe she's one of them?_ The thought had occurred to Sora almost as soon as she'd read the note. It was too convenient, after all, that Hikari would choose this time to just 'be gone'.

But Sora didn't completely believe it. She'd never met a werewolf in human form – at least not that she knew of – but she'd didn't think Hikari really _reminded_ her of a wolf in any way. And didn't most werewolves live outside of human places, even when they were in human form themselves?

 _The change is dangerous. They'll eat anything that they come across. So the ones that don't want to do that stay away from humans._

Well, if Hikari was one, then she'd be all right. If she wasn't one, then Sora wasn't going to stop searching for her, not until it was time to go back inside for herself.

"Hikari! Hikari!" She kept on calling as she roamed around the outer edges of the village. No one in town had seen Hikari; she'd already asked everyone who might have. The butcher, the baker, the general store owner, two of the local priests – who had a great deal to do with the full moon rising, as many of the locals preferred to stay in the temple with its warded and guarded borders – and all of them gave the same answer: no one had seen her.

"Don't usually see her around this time, anyway," the butcher told her thoughtfully. "Not for the last few years, anyway."

"Why's that?" If there was a reason behind this, if it happened on a regular basis, then Sora wanted to know. Anything she could find out that would ease her worries would be worthwhile.

The butcher nodded casually. "She hasn't come around during the moon-week for about… five years, I think. Not since the wolves got her brother."

Sora winced at that. Hikari hadn't mentioned having a brother, which made far more sense with this little tidbit. "I didn't know..."

"She doesn't talk about it anymore." The butcher shook her head. "Most of us don't. Taichi was a good kid. But she always comes back after the moon-week. She's fine. You shouldn't worry so much."

Sora wished she could make herself not worry. But hearing wasn't the same as knowing, and so she kept on searching, until the first long shadows stretched their fingers from underneath the bushes and trees, and she turned her steps back to the village.

 _I'll look some more in the morning,_ she told herself. _I'll find her._

* * *

Taichi lounged halfway up the tree, eyes on the first stars twinkling in the night sky. Hikari sat not that far away, her eyes tracking Sora as the other woman moved out of the woods and back to the village. He shook his head.

"You're going to have to change her one day, you know."

Hikari's head came up at once. "No! I won't!" Her eyes rounded in fear at the very thought of it. He shook his head again, sitting up so they could look at each other.

"You really think there's any other way?" He tried to keep his voice soft. He didn't want to get her upset. He'd already hurt her once, when he hadn't known what he was doing, and he didn't like the idea anymore than she did. But not liking it didn't mean that it was wrong or not true somehow. It just meant that they didn't like it.

He rubbed the side of his neck for a moment before he looked back at her. It was like this every month. He'd gotten used to it. As much as he could, anyway.

"We can talk about it later. It's going to be time soon."

He could already feel the inner tug that meant the moon would be up soon. This was as close as they dared to come to the village when it was this time.

Before Hikari could answer, a liquid howl rose through the air. To humans, it would've been just noise, or something to scare them. To Hikari and Taichi, it was a summons. Taichi rolled his eyes the moment he heard it.

"Come on. He's going to get antsy if we don't turn up soon."

Hikari bit her lip before nodding and following him down the tree. Most people didn't figure werewolves could climb trees. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but it could be done. Especially if one had two legs and two arms. Werewolves were _werewolves_ at all times, no matter what their limb-count was.

That was probably why Sora hadn't noticed them before. She'd looked up, but she hadn't really tried to look through the concealing branches and find where they hid. If she'd had a wolf's nose, she would've smelled them out.

 _Yeah, and that was me before Yamato._ His eyes softened at the thought of his mate before he shook himself and started down the path. It wasn't much of one by human standards, but human standards didn't apply in their case. Both he and Hikari made their way deeper into the woods, which thinned out the farther they went in, until they came to a clearing in front of a range of low-rising mountains. Close enough to the village so they could go there if they needed to – well, so that Hikari could live there in between moons – and far enough away that no one from the village would try to bother them there, and designed so that anyone who found it would see only the traces of a wolf pack there.

Which wasn't entirely untrue, of course. They just spent more of their time on two feet than four.

Yamato stood outside the main cave entrance. Even as they arrived, he tilted his head back and let loose with a deep, resonant howl that echoed far and wide. The other members of the pack would be there soon enough. He nodded at both of them, and pulled Taichi into his embrace as soon as the brunet got close enough.

* * *

Hikari turned away, her attention going back to the village, or at least in that rough direction. She didn't begrudge her brother and Yamato their time together. But it was far beyond difficult to see them and to know that the one _she_ liked wouldn't want to live like this.

She could smell the city on Sora whenever they stood close enough to each other. She didn't even know why Sora ended up moving to a place like this, but her scent said that it wasn't where she belonged. If she'd been different… if she'd wanted to stay in a place like this...maybe…

 _You wouldn't do it then. It's not right._

She didn't hate her brother for what he'd done. He'd been lonely. He'd been hurting. He'd not even properly understood what he did in the first place. But she understood what would happen. She had friends in the pack and she had her brother. She didn't need to change someone else just to be with her.

Movement and scent told her that the rest of the pack gathered. No sooner had the last of them arrived, then the first fingers of the moon rose upward, and the howls of the Chosen Pack filled the air.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Notes:** Yes, werewolf!AU.


End file.
